Lennart Bengtsson

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"It is important to allow a broad debate on energy and climate. We must urgently explore realistic ways to address the different scientific, technical and economic challenges in solving the world's energy problems and the associated environmental issues."

—Lennart Bengtsson

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" Throughout my life, I have been fascinated by predictability and frustrated by our inability to predict. I don't believe it makes sense for our generation to believe or pretend that we can solve the problems of the future because do not understand what these problems will be. Just do this thought experiment: Imagine you're in month of May 1914, and try to work out a plan of action for the next 100 years! Hardly anything will make sense."

—Lennart Bengtsson

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"I think the best and perhaps only sensible policy for the future is to prepare society for change and be prepared to adjust. In 25 years, we'll have a world with some 9 to 10 billion people that will require twice as much primary energy as today. We must embrace new science and technology in a more positive way than we presently do in Europe. This includes, for example, nuclear energy and genetic food production to provide the world what it urgently needs."

—Lennart Bengtsson

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"There is nothing wrong with setting targets. However, it is important to first ensure that the objectives are reasonable and, above all, that they are feasible. Formulating irrelevant goals – or goals that cannot be achieved for scientific, technical or economic reasons – does not benefit anyone, especially the citizens of the country or the population of the world. It does not help at all, no matter how cleverly the slogans are formulated."

—Lennart Bengtsson

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"There are no reliable results showing that the world cannot cope with a 1.5°C warming (just a few tenths of a degree more than what has already happened). People living in today’s cities are already 2-3°C warmer than 50 years ago, but most people prefer to live in cities. Europe is on average just over 2°C warmer now than it was 60 years ago. This is because the advantages outweigh the disadvantages, otherwise no one would live there. Furthermore, adaptation – implementing technical measures such as functioning heating and cooling systems for homes and workplaces – has worked well. The problems that exist today are mainly due to lack of capacity, corruption and political incompetence."

—Lennart Bengtsson

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"Solutions cannot simply be ordered. Listening to the bravado of “ambitious” politicians, or the ad-hoc ideas of screaming teenagers (there is a shortage of neither today) risks creating more problems than solutions."

—Lennart Bengtsson

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"As a result of chaos theory, weather and climate cannot be predicted, and how future climate will turn out will not be known until future is upon us."

—Lennart Bengtsson